Existence of the caste system in ancient India. Castes
It will come across, I know many Indian travelers who live there for months, but are not interested in castes because they are not necessary for life.
The caste system today, like a century ago, is not exotic, it is part of the complex organization of Indian society, a multifaceted phenomenon that has been studied by Indologists and ethnographers for centuries, dozens of thick books have been written about it, so I will publish only 10 here interesting facts about Indian castes - about the most popular questions and misconceptions.
1. What is an Indian caste?
Indian caste is such a complex phenomenon that it is simply impossible to give an exhaustively complete definition!
Castes can only be described through a number of characteristics, but there will still be exceptions.
Caste in India is a system of social stratification, a separate social group related by the origin and legal status of its members. Castes in India are built according to the following principles: 1) general (this rule is always observed); 2) one profession, usually hereditary; 3) members of castes enter into relationships only among themselves, as a rule; 4) members of the caste generally do not eat with strangers, with the exception of other Hindu castes of significantly higher social position than their own; 5) caste members can be determined by who they can accept water and food, processed and raw.
2. There are 4 castes in India
Now in India there are not 4, but about 3 thousand castes, they can be called differently in different parts of the country, and people with the same profession can have different castes in different states. For a complete list of modern castes by state, see http://socialjustice...
What nameless people on tourist and other near-Indian sites call 4 castes are not castes at all, they are 4 varnas - chaturvarnya - an ancient social system.
4 Varnas (वर्ना) is an ancient Indian class system. Brahmins (more correctly a brahmin) historically are clergy, doctors, teachers. Varna Kshatriyas (in ancient times it was called Rajanya) are rulers and warriors. Varna vaishyas are farmers and traders, and varna sudras are laborers and landless peasants who work for others.
Varna is a color (in Sanskrit again), and each Indian varna has its own color: the Brahmins have white, the Kshatriyas have red, the Vaishyas have yellow, the Shudras have black, and before, when all representatives of the varnas wore a sacred thread - he was just their varna.
Varnas correlate with castes, but in very different ways, sometimes there is no direct connection, and since we have already delved into science, it must be said that Indian castes, unlike varnas, are called jati - जाति.
Read more about Indian castes in modern India
3. Caste Untouchables
The untouchables are not a caste. During the times of ancient India, everyone who was not part of the 4 varnas automatically found themselves “outside” of Indian society; these strangers were avoided and not allowed to live in villages, which is why they were called untouchables. Subsequently, these untouchable strangers began to be used in the dirtiest, lowest-paid and shameful work, and formed their own social and professional groups, that is, untouchable castes, in modern India there are several of them, as a rule this is associated with either dirty work or murder living creatures or death, so that all hunters and fishermen, as well as gravediggers and tanners, are untouchable.
4. When did Indian castes appear?
Normatively, that is, legislatively, the caste-jati system in India was recorded in the Laws of Manu, which date back to the 2nd century BC.
The Varna system is much older; there is no exact dating. I wrote in more detail about the history of the issue in the article Castes of India, from varnas to modern times
5. Castes have been abolished in India
Castes in modern India are not abolished or prohibited, as is often written.
On the contrary, all castes in India are counted and listed in the annex to the Indian Constitution, which is called the Table of Castes. In addition, after the population census, changes are made to this table, usually additions; the point is not that new castes appear, but that they are recorded in accordance with the data indicated about themselves by the census participants.
Only discrimination on the basis of caste is prohibited, this is written in Article 15 of the Indian Constitution, see the test at http://lawmin.nic.in...
6. Every Indian has a caste
No, this is also not true.
Indian society is very heterogeneous in its structure, and besides the division into castes there are several others.
There are caste and non-caste, for example, representatives of Indian tribes (aboriginals, adivasis), with rare exceptions, do not have castes. And the part of non-caste Indians is quite large, see the census results http://censusindia.g...
In addition, for some misdemeanors (crimes) a person can be expelled from the caste and thus deprived of his status and position in society.
7. Castes exist only in India
No, this is a fallacy. There are castes in other countries, for example, in Nepal and Sri Lanka, since these countries developed in the bosom of the same huge Indian civilization, as well as on. But there are castes in other cultures, for example, in Tibet, and Tibetan castes do not correlate with Indian castes at all, since the class structure of Tibetan society was formed from India.
For the castes of Nepal, see Ethnic mosaic of Nepal
8. Only Hindus have castes
No, this is not the case now, we need to go deeper into history.
Historically, when the overwhelming majority of the Indian population professed - all Hindus belonged to some caste, the only exceptions were pariahs expelled from castes and the indigenous, tribal peoples of India who did not profess Hinduism and were not part of Indian society. Then other religions began to spread in India - India was invaded by other peoples, and representatives of other religions and peoples began to adopt from the Hindus their class system of varnas and the system of professional castes - jati. Now there are castes in Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Christianity, but they are different from the Hindu castes.
It is curious that in northern India, in the modern states, the Buddhist caste system is not of Indian, but of Tibetan origin.
It is even more curious that even European Christian missionary preachers were drawn into the Indian caste system: those who preached the teachings of Christ to high-born Brahmins ended up in the Christian “Brahmin” caste, and those who communicated with untouchable fishermen became Christian untouchables.
9. You need to know the caste of the Indian you are communicating with and behave accordingly.
This is a common misconception, propagated by travel sites, for no known reason and not based on anything.
It is impossible to determine which caste an Indian belongs to just by his appearance, and often by his occupation too. One acquaintance worked as a waiter, although he came from a noble Rajput family (that is, he is a kshatriya). I was able to identify a Nepalese waiter I knew by his behavior as an aristocrat, since we had known each other for a long time, I asked and he confirmed that this was true, and the guy was not working because of a lack of money at all.
My old friend started his working career at the age of 9 as a laborer, cleaning up trash in a shop... do you think he is a Shudra? no, he is a Brahmin (Brahmin) from a poor family and the 8th child... another Brahmin I know sells in a shop, he The only son, you have to earn...
Another friend of mine is so religious and bright that one would think that he is a real, ideal Brahmin. But no, he was just a sudra, and he was proud of it, and those who know what seva means will understand why.
And even if an Indian says what caste he is, although such a question is considered rude, it will still give nothing to the tourist; a person who does not know India will not understand what and why things are done in this amazing country. So there is no need to be puzzled by the caste issue, because in India it is sometimes difficult to even determine the gender of the interlocutor, and this is probably more important :)
10. Caste discrimination in modern times
India is a democratic country and, in addition to prohibiting caste discrimination, has introduced benefits for representatives of lower castes and tribes, for example, there are quotas for admission to higher educational establishments, to occupy positions in state and municipal bodies.
discrimination against people from lower castes, Dalits and tribal people in India is quite serious, casteism is still the basis of life for hundreds of millions of Indians outside large cities, it is there that the caste structure and all the prohibitions arising from it are still preserved, for example, in some temples in India Indian Shudras are not allowed in, this is where almost all caste crimes take place, for example, a very typical crime
Instead of an afterword.
If you are seriously interested in the caste system in India, I can recommend, in addition to the articles section on this site and publications on the Hindunet, reading major European Indologists of the 20th century:
1. Academic 4-volume work by R.V. Russell "and the castes of the central provinces of India"
2. Monograph by Louis Dumont "Homo hierarchicus. Experience in describing the caste system"
Besides, in last years A number of books on this topic have been published in India, unfortunately I have not held them in my hands.
If you are not ready to read scientific literature, read the novel “The God of Small Things” by the very popular modern Indian writer Arundhati Roy, it can be found in RuNet.
Recently I was preparing an anthropology essay on the topic “Indian Mentality”. The creation process was very exciting, since the country itself amazes with its traditions and characteristics. If anyone is interested, read it.
I was especially struck by: the plight of women in India, the phrase that “The husband is the earthly God,” the very difficult life of the untouchables (the last class in India), and the happy existence of cows and bulls.
Contents of the first part:
1. General information
2. Castes
1
. General information about India
INDIA, Republic of India (in Hindi - Bharat), a state in South Asia.
Capital - Delhi
Area - 3,287,590 km2.
Ethnic composition. 72% Indo-Aryans, 25% Dravidians, 3% Mongoloids.
The official name of the country , India, comes from the ancient Persian word Hindu, which in turn comes from the Sanskrit sindhu (Sanskrit: सिन्धु), the historical name of the Indus River. The ancient Greeks called the Indians Indoi (ancient Greek Ἰνδοί) - “people of the Indus”. The Indian Constitution also recognizes a second name, Bharat (Hindi भारत), which is derived from the Sanskrit name of the ancient Indian king, whose history was described in the Mahabharata. The third name, Hindustan, has been used since the time of the Mughal Empire, but has no official status.
Indian territory in the north it extends 2930 km in the latitudinal direction, and 3220 km in the meridional direction. India is washed by the Arabian Sea in the west, Indian Ocean in the south and the Bay of Bengal in the east. Its neighbors are Pakistan in the northwest, China, Nepal and Bhutan in the north, and Bangladesh and Myanmar in the east. India also shares maritime borders with the Maldives in the southwest, Sri Lanka in the south and Indonesia in the southeast. The disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with Afghanistan.
India ranks seventh in the world by area, second largest population (after China) , on this moment lives in it 1.2 billion people. India has had one of the highest population densities in the world for thousands of years.
Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism originated in India. In the first millennium AD, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam also came to the Indian subcontinent, which had a great influence on the formation of the diverse culture of the region.
More than 900 million Indians (80.5% of the population) profess Hinduism. Other religions with significant numbers of followers are Islam (13.4%), Christianity (2.3%), Sikhism (1.9%), Buddhism (0.8%) and Jainism (0.4%). Religions such as Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Baha'i and others are also represented in India. Animism is common among the aboriginal population, which makes up 8.1%.
Almost 70% of Indians live in rural areas, although migration to big cities has led to a sharp increase in the urban population in recent decades. The largest cities in India are Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Delhi, Kolkata (formerly Kolkata), Chennai (formerly Madras), Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In terms of cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity, India ranks second in the world after the African continent. The gender composition of the population is characterized by an excess of men over the number of women. The male population is 51.5%, and the female population is 48.5%. For every thousand men there are 929 women, this ratio has been observed since the beginning of this century.
India is home to the Indo-Aryan language family (74% of the population) and the Dravidian language family (24% of the population). Other languages spoken in India come from the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman linguistic families. Hindi, the most widely spoken language in India, is the official language of the Indian government. English language, which is widely used in business and administration, has the status of an “auxiliary official language”, it also plays a large role in education, especially in secondary and higher education. The Constitution of India defines 21 official languages that are spoken by a significant part of the population or that have classical status. There are 1652 dialects in India.
Climate humid and warm, mostly tropical, tropical monsoon in the north. India, located in tropical and subequatorial latitudes, fenced off by the wall of the Himalayas from the influence of continental Arctic air masses, is one of the hottest countries in the world with a typical monsoon climate. The monsoon rhythm of precipitation determines the rhythm of economic work and the entire way of life. 70-80% of the annual rainfall falls during the four months of the monsoon season (June-September), when the southwest monsoon arrives and rains almost incessantly. This is the main Kharif field season. October-November is the post-monsoon period when the rains mostly stop. The winter season (December-February) is dry and cool, at this time roses and many other flowers bloom, many trees bloom - this is the most pleasant time to visit India. March-May is the hottest, driest season, when temperatures often exceed 35 °C, often rising above 40 °C. This is a time of sweltering heat, when the grass burns out, leaves fall from the trees, and air conditioners work at full capacity in rich houses.
National animal - tiger.
National bird - peacock.
National flower - lotus.
National fruit - mango.
The national currency is the Indian rupee.
India can be called the cradle of human civilization. The Indians were the first in the world to learn how to grow rice, cotton, and sugar cane, and they were the first to raise poultry. India gave the world chess and the decimal system.
The average literacy rate in the country is 52%, with the figure for men being 64% and for women 39%.
2. Castes in India
CASTES - division of Hindu society in the Indian subcontinent.
For many centuries, caste was determined primarily by profession. The profession that passed from father to son often did not change throughout the lives of dozens of generations.
Each caste lives according to its own dharma - with that set of traditional religious instructions and prohibitions, the creation of which is attributed to the gods, to divine revelation. Dharma determines the norms of behavior of members of each caste, regulates their actions and even feelings. Dharma is that elusive but immutable thing that is pointed out to a child already in the days of his first babble. Everyone must act in accordance with his own dharma, deviation from dharma is lawlessness - this is what children are taught at home and at school, this is what the brahmana - mentor and spiritual leader - repeats. And a person grows up in the consciousness of the absolute inviolability of the laws of dharma, their immutability.
Currently, the caste system is officially prohibited, and the strict division of crafts or professions depending on caste is gradually being eliminated, while at the same time a government policy is being pursued to reward those who have been oppressed for centuries at the expense of representatives of other castes. It is widely believed that in the modern Indian state castes are losing their former meaning. However, developments have shown that this is far from the case.
In fact, the caste system itself has not gone away: when entering school, a student is asked about his religion, and if he professes Hinduism, his caste, in order to know whether there is a place in this school for representatives of this caste in accordance with state norms. When entering a college or university, caste is important in order to correctly estimate the threshold score (the lower the caste, the lower the number of points required for a passing grade). When applying for a job, caste is again important in order to maintain balance. Although castes are not forgotten even when arranging the future of their children - weekly supplements with marriage advertisements are published in major Indian newspapers, in which columns are divided into religions, and the most voluminous column is with representatives of Hinduism - to castes. Often under such advertisements, which describe the parameters of both the groom (or bride) and the requirements for the prospective applicants (or applicants), the standard phrase “Cast no bar” is placed, which translated means “Caste does not matter,” but, to be honest, I doubt a little that for a bride from the Brahman caste, her parents will seriously consider a groom from a caste lower than the Kshatriyas. Yes, inter-caste marriages are also not always approved, but they do happen if, for example, the groom occupies a higher position in society than the bride’s parents (but this is not a mandatory requirement - cases vary). In such marriages, the caste of the children is determined by the father. So, if a girl from a Brahmin family marries a Kshatriya boy, then their children will belong to the Kshatriya caste. If a Kshatriya youth marries a Veishya girl, then their children will also be considered Kshatriyas.
The official tendency to downplay the importance of the caste system has led to the disappearance of the corresponding column in the once-a-decade population censuses. IN last time information about the number of castes was published in 1931 (3000 castes). But this figure does not necessarily include all local podcasts that operate as stand-alone podcasts. social groups. In 2011, India plans to conduct a general population census, which will take into account the caste affiliation of the inhabitants of this country.
The main characteristics of the Indian caste:
. endogamy (marriage exclusively between caste members);
. hereditary membership (accompanied by the practical impossibility of moving to another caste);
. prohibition on sharing meals with representatives of other castes, as well as having physical contact with them;
. recognition of the firmly established place of each caste in the hierarchical structure of society as a whole;
. restrictions on choosing a profession;
Indians believe that Manu is the first person from whom we all descended. Once upon a time, the god Vishnu saved him from the Flood, which destroyed the rest of humanity, after which Manu came up with rules that would henceforth guide people. Hindus believe that it was 30 thousand years ago (historians stubbornly date the laws of Manu to the 1st-2nd centuries BC and generally claim that this collection of instructions is a compilation of the works of different authors). Like most other religious precepts, the laws of Manu are distinguished by exceptional meticulousness and attention to the most insignificant details human life- from swaddling babies to culinary recipes. But it also contains much more fundamental things. It is according to the laws of Manu that all Indians are divided into four estates - varnas.
Varnas, of which there are only four, are often confused with castes, of which there are a great many. Caste is a fairly small community of people united by profession, nationality and place of residence. And varnas are more similar to categories such as workers, entrepreneurs, employees and the intelligentsia.
There are four main varnas: Brahmanas (officials), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants) and Shudras (peasants, workers, servants). The rest are “untouchables”.
Brahmins are the highest caste in India.
Brahmins appeared from the mouth of Brahma. The meaning of life for brahmins is moksha, or liberation.
These are scientists, ascetics, priests. (Teachers and priests)
Today Brahmins most often work as officials.
The most famous is Jawaharlal Nehru.
In a typical rural area, the highest stratum of the caste hierarchy is formed by members of one or more Brahmin castes, constituting 5 to 10% of the population. Among these brahmanas there are a number of landowners, a few village clerks and accountants or accountants, and a small group of clergy who perform ritual functions in local sanctuaries and temples. Members of each Brahmin caste marry only within their own circle, although it is possible to marry a bride from a family belonging to a similar subcaste from a neighboring area. Brahmins are not supposed to follow the plow or perform certain types of manual labor; women from their midst can serve in the house, and landowners can cultivate plots, but not plow. Brahmins are also allowed to work as cooks or domestic servants.
A Brahman has no right to eat food prepared outside his caste, but members of all other castes can eat from the hands of Brahmans. When choosing food, a Brahmin observes many prohibitions. Members of the Vaishnava caste (who worship the god Vishnu) have adhered to vegetarianism since the 4th century, when it became widespread; some other castes of Brahmans who worship Shiva (Shaiva Brahmans) do not in principle refuse meat dishes, but abstain from the meat of animals included in the diet of lower castes.
Brahmins serve as spiritual guides in the families of most high- or middle-status castes, except those considered "impure". Brahmin priests, as well as members of a number of religious orders, are often recognized by their “caste marks” - patterns painted on the forehead with white, yellow or red paint. But such marks indicate only membership in a major sect and characterize a given person as a worshiper of, for example, Vishnu or Shiva, and not as a subject of a particular caste or sub-caste.
Brahmins, more than others, adhere to the occupations and professions that were provided for in their varna. Over the course of many centuries, scribes, clerks, clergymen, scientists, teachers and officials emerged from their midst. Back in the first half of the 20th century. in some areas, brahmins occupied up to 75% of all more or less important government positions.
In communicating with the rest of the population, Brahmins do not allow reciprocity; Thus, they accept money or gifts from members of other castes, but they themselves never make gifts of a ritual or ceremonial nature. There is no complete equality among the Brahman castes, but even the lowest of them stands above the rest of the highest castes.
The mission of a member of the Brahmin caste is to study, teach, receive gifts and give gifts. By the way, all Indian programmers are Brahmins.
Kshatriyas
Warriors who emerged from the hands of Brahma.These are warriors, administrators, kings, nobles, rajas, maharajahs.
The most famous is Buddha Shakyamuni
For a kshatriya, the main thing is dharma, fulfillment of duty.
After the Brahmins, the most prominent hierarchical place is occupied by the Kshatriya castes. In rural areas they include, for example, landowners, possibly associated with former ruling houses (for example, the Rajput princes in North India). Traditional occupations in such castes are working as managers on estates and serving in various administrative positions and in the army, but now these castes no longer enjoy the same power and authority. In ritual terms, the Kshatriyas are immediately behind the Brahmins and also observe strict caste endogamy, although they allow marriage with a girl from a lower subcaste (a union called hypergamy), but in no case can a woman marry a man from a subcaste lower than her own. Most kshatriyas eat meat; they have the right to accept food from Brahmins, but not from representatives of any other castes.
Vaishya
They emerged from the thighs of Brahma.
These are artisans, traders, farmers, entrepreneurs (layers that engage in trade).
The Gandhi family is from the Vaishyas, and at one time the fact that it was born with the Nehru Brahmins caused a huge scandal.
The main motivation in life is artha, or the desire for wealth, for property, for accumulation.
The third category includes merchants, shopkeepers and moneylenders. These castes recognize the superiority of the Brahmins, but do not necessarily show the same attitude towards the Kshatriya castes; as a rule, vaishyas are more strict in observing the rules regarding food, and are even more careful to avoid ritual pollution. The traditional occupation of Vaishyas is trade and banking; they tend to stay away from physical labor, but sometimes they are included in the management of the farms of landowners and village entrepreneurs, without directly participating in the cultivation of the land.
Shudras
Came from the feet of Brahma.
Peasant caste. (farms, servants, artisans, workers)
The main aspiration at the sudra stage is kama. These are pleasures, pleasant experiences delivered by the senses.
Mithun Chakraborty from "Disco Dancer" is a sudra.
They, due to their numbers and ownership of a significant part of local land, play an important role in solving social and political issues in some areas. Shudras eat meat, and widows and divorced women are allowed to marry. The lower Shudras are numerous sub-castes whose profession is of a highly specialized nature. These are the castes of potters, blacksmiths, carpenters, joiners, weavers, oil makers, distillers, masons, hairdressers, musicians, tanners (those who sew products from finished leather), butchers, scavengers and many others. Members of these castes are supposed to practice their hereditary profession or craft; however, if a Shudra is able to acquire land, any of them can engage in agriculture. Members of many craft and other professional castes have traditionally had traditional relationships with members of higher castes, which consist of the provision of services for which no salary is paid, but an annual remuneration in kind. This payment is made by each household in the village whose requests are satisfied by a given member of the professional caste. For example, a blacksmith has his own circle of clients, for whom he makes and repairs equipment and other metal products all year round, for which he, in turn, is given a certain amount of grain.
The Untouchables
Those engaged in the dirtiest jobs are often poor or very poor people.
They are outside the Hindu society.
Activities such as tanning leather or slaughtering animals are considered clearly polluting, and although this work is very important to the community, those who engage in it are considered untouchables. They are engaged in cleaning dead animals from streets and fields, toilets, tanning leather, and cleaning sewers. They work as scavengers, tanners, flayers, potters, prostitutes, laundresses, shoemakers, and are hired for the hardest work in mines, construction sites, etc. That is, everyone who comes into contact with one of the three dirty things specified in the laws of Manu - sewage, corpses and clay - or leads a wandering life on the streets.
In many respects they are outside the boundaries of Hindu society, they were called "outcaste", "low", "scheduled" castes, and Gandhi proposed the euphemism "harijans" ("children of God"), which became widely used. But they themselves prefer to call themselves “Dalits” - “broken”. Members of these castes are prohibited from using public wells and taps. You cannot walk on the sidewalks so as not to inadvertently come into contact with a representative of the highest caste, because they will have to cleanse themselves after such contact in the temple. In some areas of cities and villages they are generally prohibited from appearing. Dalits are also prohibited from visiting temples; only a few times a year they are allowed to cross the threshold of the sanctuaries, after which the temple is subjected to thorough ritual cleansing. If a Dalit wants to buy something in a store, he must put money at the entrance and shout from the street what he needs - the purchase will be taken out and left on the doorstep. A Dalit is prohibited from starting a conversation with a representative of a higher caste or calling him on the phone.
After some Indian states passed laws fining canteen owners for refusing to feed Dalits, most catering establishments installed special cabinets with dishes for them. However, if the canteen does not have a separate room for Dalits, they have to dine outside.
Most Hindu temples until recently were closed to untouchables; there was even a ban on approaching people from higher castes closer than a set number of steps. The nature of caste barriers is such that Harijans are believed to continue to pollute members of the “pure” castes, even if they have long abandoned their caste occupation and are engaged in ritually neutral activities, such as agriculture. Although in other social settings and situations, such as being in an industrial city or on a train, an untouchable may have physical contact with members of higher castes and not pollute them, in his home village untouchability is inseparable from him, no matter what he does.
When British journalist of Indian origin Ramita Navai decided to make a revolutionary film revealing to the world the terrible truth about the life of untouchables (Dalits), she endured a lot. She courageously looked at the Dalit teenagers frying and eating rats. Of little children splashing in the gutter and playing with parts of a dead dog. A housewife cutting up more decorative pieces from a rotten pig carcass. But when the well-groomed journalist was taken with them to work shift a lady from a caste that traditionally cleans toilets by hand, the poor thing vomited right in front of the camera. “Why do these people live like this?!! - the journalist asked us in the last seconds documentary film“Dalit means broken.” Yes, because the child of the Brahmins spent the morning and evening hours in prayers, and the son of a Kshatriya at the age of three was put on a horse and taught to swing a saber. For a Dalit, the ability to live in the dirt is his valor, his skill. Dalits know better than anyone: those who are afraid of dirt will die faster than others.
There are several hundred untouchable castes.
Every fifth Indian is a Dalit - that's at least 200 million people.
Hindus believe in reincarnation and believe that the one who follows the rules of his caste will rise by birth to a higher caste in a future life, while the one who breaks these rules will become unknown in the next life.
The first three high classes of varnas were required to undergo an initiation rite, after which they were called twice-born. Members of high castes, especially Brahmins, then wore a “sacred thread” over their shoulders. Twice-born people were allowed to study the Vedas, but only brahmanas could preach them. Shudras were strictly forbidden not only to study, but even to listen to the words of Vedic teachings.
Clothing, despite its apparent uniformity, is different for different castes and significantly distinguishes a member of a high caste from a member of a low one. Some wrap their hips with a wide strip of fabric that falls to the ankles, for others it should not cover their knees, women of some castes should drape their bodies in a strip of fabric of at least seven or nine meters, while women of others should not use fabric longer than four or five on their sari meters, some were required to wear a certain type of jewelry, others were prohibited from it, some could use an umbrella, others did not have the right to do so, etc. and so on. The type of housing, food, even the vessels for its preparation - everything is determined, everything is prescribed, everything is learned from childhood by a member of each caste.
That is why in India it is very difficult to pretend to be a member of any other caste - such imposture will be immediately exposed. Only one can do this who has studied the dharma of another caste for many years and had the opportunity to practice it. And even then he can only succeed so much far from his locality, where they know nothing about his village or city. And that’s why the most terrible punishment has always been exclusion from the caste, loss of one’s social face, and severance from all production ties.
Even the untouchables, who from century to century performed the dirtiest work, were brutally suppressed and exploited by members of higher castes, those untouchables who were humiliated and disdained as something unclean - they were still considered members of caste society. They had their own dharma, they could be proud of their adherence to its rules, and they maintained their long-legalized industrial ties. They had their own very definite caste face and their own very definite place, albeit in the lowest layers of this multi-layered hive.
Bibliography:
1. Guseva N.R. - India in the mirror of centuries. Moscow, VECHE, 2002
2. Snesarev A.E. - Ethnographic India. Moscow, Nauka, 1981
3. Material from Wikipedia - India:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%8F
4. Online Encyclopedia Around the World - India:
http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/strany_mira/INDIYA.html
5. Marry an Indian: life, traditions, features:
http://tomarryindian.blogspot.com/
6. Interesting articles about tourism. India. Women of India.
http://turistua.com/article/258.htm
7. Material from Wikipedia - Hinduism:
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC
8. Bharatiya.ru - pilgrimage and travel through India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet.
http://www.bharatiya.ru/index.html
Divided people into four classes called varnas. He created the first varna, the brahmanas, intended to enlighten and govern humanity, from his head or mouth; the second, kshatriyas (warriors), protectors of society, from the hand; the third, Vaishya, the nourishers of the state, from the stomach; the fourth, sudra, from the legs, devoting it to an eternal destiny - to serve the highest varnas. Over time, the varnas were divided into many sub-castes and castes, called jati in India. The European name is caste.
So, the four ancient castes of India, their rights and duties according to the ancient law of Manu*, which was strictly observed in.
(* Laws of Manu - an ancient Indian collection of instructions for religious, moral and social duty (dharma), today also called the “law of the Aryans” or “code of honor of the Aryans”).
Brahmins
Brahman “son of the sun, descendant of Brahma, god among men” (the usual titles of this class), according to the law of Menu, is the head of all created creatures; the whole universe is subject to him; the remaining mortals owe the preservation of their lives to his intercession and prayers; his almighty curse can instantly destroy formidable generals with their numerous hordes, chariots and war elephants. Brahman can create new worlds; may even give birth to new gods. A Brahmin should be given greater honor than a king.
The integrity of a Brahman and his life are protected by bloody laws. If a Shudra dares to verbally insult a Brahman, then the law orders that a red-hot iron be driven into his throat, ten inches deep; and if he decides to give some instruction to the brahmana, boiling oil is poured into the unfortunate man’s mouth and ears. On the other hand, anyone is allowed to take a false oath or give false testimony before a court if by these actions one can save a Brahman from condemnation.
A Brahman cannot, under any condition, be executed or punished, either physically or financially, although he would be convicted of the most outrageous crimes: the only punishment to which he is subject is removal from the fatherland, or exclusion from the caste.
Brahmins are divided into lay and spiritual, and are divided according to their occupations into different classes. It is noteworthy that among the spiritual Brahmins, the priests occupy the lowest level, and the highest are those who devoted themselves only to the interpretation of sacred books. Lay brahmins are the king's advisors, judges and other high officials.
Only a brahmana is given the right to interpret sacred books, conduct worship and predict the future; but he is deprived of this last right if he makes a mistake in his predictions three times. A Brahman can primarily heal, for “illness is the punishment of the gods”; only a Brahmin can be a judge because the civil and criminal laws of the Hindus are included in their holy books.
The entire way of life of a brahmana is built on compliance with a whole set of strict rules. For example, all brahmins are prohibited from accepting gifts from unworthy persons (lower castes). Music, dancing, hunting and gambling are also prohibited to all brahmanas. But the consumption of wine and all sorts of intoxicating things, such as onions, garlic, eggs, fish, any meat, except from animals slaughtered as a sacrifice to the gods, is prohibited only to lower brahmanas.
A Brahman will defile himself if he sits at the same table even with the king, not to mention members of the lower castes or his own wives. He is obliged not to look at the sun at certain hours and to leave the house when it rains; he cannot step through the rope to which the cow is tied, and must pass by this sacred animal or idol, only leaving it on his right.
In case of need, a Brahman is allowed to beg alms from people of the three highest castes and engage in trade; but under no circumstances can he serve anyone.
A Brahman who wants to receive the honorary title of interpreter of laws and supreme guru prepares for this through various hardships. He renounces marriage, devotes himself to a thorough study of the Vedas in some monastery for 12 years, refraining from even conversation for the last 5 and explaining himself only by signs; Thus, he finally achieves the desired goal and becomes a spiritual teacher.
Monetary support for the Brahman caste is also provided for by law. Generosity towards Brahmins constitutes a religious virtue for all believers, and is the direct duty of rulers. Upon the death of a rootless Brahman, his property goes not to the treasury, but to the caste. A brahmana does not pay any taxes. Thunder would kill the king who dared to encroach on the person or property of a Brahman; the poor Brahmin is maintained at state expense.
The life of a Brahmin is divided into 4 stages.
First stage begins even before birth, when learned men are sent to the pregnant wife of a brahman for conversations in order to “thus prepare the child for the perception of wisdom.” At 12 days the baby is given a name, at three years his head is shaved, leaving only a piece of hair called kudumi. Several years later, the child is placed in the arms of a spiritual mentor (guru). Education with this guru usually lasts from 7-8 to 15 years. During the entire period of education, which consists mainly of the study of the Vedas, the student is obliged to blindly obey his mentor and all members of his family. He is often entrusted with the most menial household tasks, and he must perform them unquestioningly. The will of the guru replaces his law and conscience; his smile serves as the best reward. At this stage, the child is considered one-born.
Second phase begins after the ritual of initiation or rebirth, which the young man undergoes after completing the teaching. From this moment on, he is twice-born. During this period, he marries, raises his family and performs the duties of a brahmin.
The third period of a brahmana's life is vanaprastra.. Having reached the age of 40, a brahmana enters the third period of his life, called vanaprastra. He must retire to deserted places and become a hermit. Here he covers his nakedness with tree bark or the skin of a black antelope; does not cut nails or hair; sleeps on a rock or on the ground; must spend days and nights “without a home, without a fire, in complete silence, and eating only roots and fruits.” The Brahman spends his days in prayer and mortification.
Having thus spent 22 years in prayer and fasting, the Brahmana enters the fourth department of life, called sannyas. Only here he is freed from all external rituals. The old hermit deepens into perfect contemplation. The soul of a brahmana who dies in a state of sannyas immediately acquires merger with the deity (nirvana); and his body, in a sitting position, is lowered into the pit and sprinkled with salt all around.
The color of a brahman's clothing depended on what spiritual structure they belonged to. Sanyasi, monks, renounced the world wore orange clothes, family ones wore white.
Kshatriyas
The second caste consists of kshatriyas, warriors. According to the law of Menu, members of this caste could make sacrifices, and the study of the Vedas was a special duty for princes and heroes; but subsequently the Brahmins left them only permission to read or listen to the Vedas, without analyzing or interpreting them, and appropriated the right to explain the texts to themselves.
Kshatriyas must give alms, but not accept them, avoid vices and sensual pleasures, and live simply, “as befits a warrior.” The law states that “the priestly caste cannot exist without the warrior caste, just as the latter cannot exist without the former, and that the peace of the whole world depends on the consent of both, on the union of knowledge and the sword.”
With few exceptions, all kings, princes, generals and first rulers belong to the second caste; Since ancient times, the judicial part and the management of education have been in the hands of Brahmins (Brahmins). Kshatriyas are allowed to consume all meat except beef. This caste was previously divided into three parts: all the ruling and non-ruling princes (rayas) and their children (rayanutras) belonged to the upper class.
Kshatriyas wore red clothes.
Vaishya
The third caste is the Vaishyas. Previously, they too participated both in sacrifices and in the right to read the Vedas, but later, through the efforts of the brahmanas, they lost these advantages. Although the Vaishyas stood much lower than the Kshatriyas, they still occupied an honorable place in society. They had to engage in trade, arable farming and cattle breeding. The Vaishya's rights to property were respected, and his fields were considered inviolable. He had the religious right to let money grow.
The highest castes - Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, used all three scarfs, senar, each caste - their own, and were called twice-born, in contrast to the once-born - Shudras.
Shudras
The duty of a sudra, Menu says briefly, is to serve the three highest castes. It is best for a Shudra to serve a Brahmin, if not a Kshatriya, and finally a Vaishya. In this only case, if he does not find an opportunity to enter into service, he is allowed to take up a useful craft. The soul of a Shudra, who has diligently and honestly served his entire life as a Brahmin, upon migration, is reborn into a person of the highest caste.
A Shudra is forbidden to even look at the Vedas. A Brahman not only has no right to interpret the Vedas to a Shudra, but is also obliged to read them to himself in the presence of the latter. A Brahmin who allows himself to interpret the law to a Shudra, or explain to him the means of repentance, will be punished in the Asamarit hell.
A Shudra must eat the scraps of his masters and wear their cast-offs. He is forbidden to acquire anything, “so that he does not take it into his head to become arrogant to the temptation of the sacred Brahmins.” If a Shudra verbally insults a Veisha or a Kshatriya, his tongue is cut out; if he dares to sit next to the Brahman, or take his place, then a red-hot iron is applied to the more guilty part of the body. The name of a sudra, says the law of Menu: there is a swear word, and the fine for killing it does not exceed the amount that is paid for the death of an unimportant domestic animal, for example, a dog or a cat. Killing a cow is considered a much more reprehensible act: killing a Shudra is a misdemeanor; Killing a cow is a sin!
Bondage is the natural position of a Shudra, and the master cannot free him by giving him leave; “for, says the law: who, except death, can liberate a Sudra from the natural state?”
It is quite difficult for us Europeans to understand such an alien world and we, involuntarily, want to bring everything under our own concepts - and this is what misleads us. So, for example, according to the concepts of the Hindus, the Shudras constitute a class of people designated by nature for service in general, but at the same time they are not considered slaves and do not constitute the property of private individuals.
The attitude of the masters towards the Shudras, despite the given examples of an inhuman view of them, from a religious point of view, was determined by civil law, especially the measure and method of punishment, which in all respects coincided with the patriarchal punishments allowed by folk custom in the relations of father to son or elder brother to to the younger, husband to wife, and guru to disciple.
Impure castes
Just as almost everywhere women were subjected to discrimination and all kinds of restrictions, so in India the strictness of caste division weighs much more heavily on women than on men. When entering into a second marriage, a man is allowed to choose a wife from a lower caste other than a Shudra. So, for example, a Brahmin can marry a woman of the second or even third caste; the children of this mixed marriage will occupy a middle rank between the castes of the father and mother. A woman, marrying a man of a lower caste, commits a crime: she defiles herself and all her offspring. Shudras can only marry among themselves.
The mixing of any of the castes with the Shudras gives rise to impure castes, of which the most despicable is the one that comes from the mixing of a Shudra with a Brahmin. The members of this caste are called Chandals, and must be executioners or flayers; the touch of a chandala entails expulsion from the caste.
The Untouchables
Below the unclean castes there is still a miserable race of pariahs. They do the lowest jobs together with the Chandals. The pariahs skin the carrion, process it, and eat the meat; but they abstain from cow meat. Their touch defiles not only a person, but also objects. They have their own special wells; near the cities they are given a special quarter, surrounded by a moat and slingshots. They also do not have the right to show themselves in villages, but must hide in forests, caves and swamps.
A Brahmin, defiled by the shadow of a pariah, must bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganges, for only they can wash away such a stain of shame.
Even lower than the Pariah are the Pulai, who live on the Malabar Coast. Slaves of the Nairs, they are forced to take refuge in damp dungeons, and do not dare to raise their eyes to the noble Hindu. Seeing a Brahmin or Nair from afar, the pulai emit a loud roar to warn the masters of their proximity, and while the “gentlemen” wait on the road, they must hide in a cave, in the thicket of the forest, or climb a tall tree. Those who did not have time to hide are cut down by the Nairs like an unclean reptile. The Pulai live in terrible untidiness, eating carrion and all kinds of meat except cow meat.
But even a pulai can rest for a moment from the overwhelming universal contempt; There are human creatures even more pitiful, lower than him: these are the pariyars, lower because, sharing all the humiliation of the pulai, they allow themselves to eat cow meat!.. You can imagine how the soul of a devout Hindu shudders at such sacrilege, and therefore the Europeans and Muslims who also do not respect the sanctity of fat Indian cows and introduce them to the location of their kitchen, all of them, in his opinion, morally, are completely in line with the despicable pariar.
For a long time, the dominant idea was that, at least in the Vedic era, Indian society was divided into four classes, called varnas, each of which was associated with professional activity. Outside the varna division were the so-called untouchables.
Anton ZykovMPhil (Oxford University) - teacher of the open program "Persian language and culture of Iran" at the Higher School of Economics
Subsequently, smaller hierarchical communities - castes - were formed within the varnas, which also included ethnic and territorial characteristics, and belonging to a particular clan. In modern India, the varna-caste system still operates, which largely determines a person’s position in society, but this social institution is modified every year, partially losing its historical significance.
Varna
The concept of “varna” is first found in the Rig Veda. The Rig Veda, or "Veda of Hymns", is one of the four main and oldest Indian religious texts. It is composed in Vedic Sanskrit and dates back to approximately the 2nd millennium BC. The tenth mandala of the Rig Veda (10.90) contains a hymn about the sacrifice of the first man Purusha. According to the hymn, Purusha Sukta, the gods throw Purusha onto a sacrificial fire, pour oil on him and dismember him, each part of his body becomes a kind of metaphor for a certain social class - a certain varna. Purusha's mouth became brahmanas, that is, priests, his hands became kshatriyas, that is, warriors, his thighs became vaishyas (farmers and artisans), and his legs became sudras, that is, servants. The untouchables are not mentioned in the Purusha Sukta, and thus they stand outside the varna division.
Varna division in India (quora.com)
Based on this hymn, European scholars who studied Sanskrit texts at the end of the 18th - early XIX centuries, came to the conclusion that Indian society was structured in this way. The question remained: why is it structured this way? In Sanskrit, the word varṇa means “color,” and Orientalist scholars decided that “color” meant skin color, extrapolating the contemporary social realities of colonialism to Indian society. So, the Brahmins, who are at the head of this social pyramid, should have the lightest skin, and the rest of the classes, accordingly, should be darker.
This theory was for a long time supported by the theory of the Aryan invasion of India and the superiority of the Aryans over the proto-Aryan civilization that preceded them. According to this theory, the Aryans (“Ariya” means “noble” in Sanskrit; they were associated with the white race) subjugated the autochthonous dark-skinned population and rose to a higher social level, consolidating this division through the hierarchy of varnas. Archaeological research has refuted the theory of the Aryan conquest. Now we know that the Indus civilization (or the civilization of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro) did die unnaturally, but most likely as a result of a natural disaster.
In addition, the word “varna” most likely does not mean skin color, but the connection between different social strata and a certain color. For example, the connection between Brahmins and the color orange has reached modern India, which is reflected in their saffron clothes.
Evolution of the varn system
A number of linguists already in the 20th century, such as Georges Dumezil and Emile Benveniste, believed that even the Proto-Indo-Aryan community, before it split into Indian and Iranian branches, contained a three-stage social division. The text of the Yasna, one of the components of the Zoroastrian holy book of the Avesta, the language of which is related to Sanskrit, also speaks of a three-level hierarchy, where at the head are the Atravans (in today's Indian tradition, Atornans) - priests, Rateshtars - warriors, Vastrya-Fshuyants - shepherds-cattle breeders and farmers. In another passage in the Yasna (19.17), a fourth social class is added to them - huitish (artisans). Thus, the system of social strata becomes identical to that which we observed in the Rig Veda. We cannot, however, say exactly how much of a real role this division played in the 2nd millennium BC. Some scholars suggest that this social occupational division was largely arbitrary and people could freely move from one part of society to another. A person became a representative of one or another social class after choosing his profession. Moreover, the hymn about the superman Purusha is a relatively later inclusion in the Rig Veda.
Legacy of the British EmpireLegacy of the British EmpireHistorian Alexander Voevodsky about the founding fathers of the USA, the emergence of a unified state in India and the path of Mahatma Gandhi. In the Brahmanical era, it is assumed that the social status of various segments of the population was more firmly consolidated. In later texts, such as the Manu-smriti (Laws of Manu), written around the turn of our era, the social hierarchy appears less flexible. We find an allegorical description of social classes as parts of the body similar to the Purusha Sukta in another Zoroastrian text - “Denkard”, created in the Middle Persian language in the 10th century.
If we move back to the era of the formation and heyday of the Great Mughals, that is, to the 16th - early 18th centuries, the social structure of this state seems more mobile. At the head of the empire was the emperor, who was surrounded by an army and his closest devotees, his court, or darbar. The capital was constantly changing, the emperor and his darbar moved from place to place, people flocked to the court different people: Afghans, Pashtuns, Tamils, Uzbeks, Rajputs, anyone. They received one or another place in the social hierarchy depending on their own military merits, and not only because of their origin.
British India
In the 17th century, the British colonization of India began through the East India Company. The British did not try to change social structure Indian society, in the first period of their expansion they were only interested in trade profits. Subsequently, however, as more and more territories fell under the actual control of the company, officials were concerned with the successful administrative control of taxes, as well as with studying how Indian society was organized and the “natural laws” of its administration. For this purpose, the first Governor-General of India, Warren Hastings, hired several Bengali Brahmins, who, of course, dictated to him laws that consolidated the dominance of the upper castes in the social hierarchy. On the other hand, in order to structure taxation, it was necessary to make people less mobile, less likely to move between different regions and provinces. What could ensure their anchorage on the ground? Only placing them in certain socio-economic communities. The British began to conduct censuses, which also indicated caste, so it was assigned to everyone at the legislative level. And the last factor was the development of large industrial centers such as Bombay, where clusters of individual castes formed. Thus, during the OIC rule, the caste structure of Indian society acquired a more rigid outline, which led a number of researchers, such as Niklas Derks, to talk about caste as it exists today as a social construct of colonialism.
British Army polo team in Hyderabad (Hulton Archive // gettyimages.com)
British Army polo team in Hyderabad (Hulton Archive // gettyimages.com)
After the rather bloody Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, sometimes called the First War of Independence in Indian historiography, the Queen issued a manifesto to close the East India Company and annex India to the British Empire. In the same manifesto, the colonial authorities, fearing a repetition of unrest, promised not to interfere in the internal governance of the country regarding its social traditions and norms, which also contributed to the further strengthening of the caste system.
Castes
Thus, a more balanced view seems to be the opinion of Susan Bailey, who argues that although the varna-caste structure of society in its current form is largely a product of the British colonial legacy, the castes themselves as units of social hierarchy in India did not just appear out of thin air. . The mid-20th century idea of the total hierarchy of Indian society and of caste as its main structural element, which is best described in the work “Homo Hierarchicus” by Louis Dumont, is also considered unbalanced.
“Upanishad” An excerpt from the collection “The Free Philosopher Pyatigorsky”, which includes lectures by Alexander Pyatigorsky on world philosophy from the teachings of Ancient India to Sartre. It is important to note that there is a difference between the concepts of “varna” and “caste” (a word borrowed from Portuguese), or “jati” " “Jati” means a smaller hierarchical community, which implies not only professional, but also ethnic and territorial characteristics, as well as belonging to a particular clan. If you are a Maharashtrian Brahmin, it does not mean that you will follow the same rituals as a Kashmiri Brahmin. There are some national rituals, for example, tying a Brahmin thread, but to a greater extent, caste rituals (eating, marriage) are determined at the level of a small community.
Varnas, which are supposed to be professional communities, play virtually no such role in modern India, with the possible exception of the pujari priests who become brahmanas. It happens that representatives of some castes do not know which varna they belong to. There is a constant change in position in the socio-economic hierarchy. When India became independent from the British Empire in 1947 and elections began to be held on the basis of equal direct voting, the balance of power in different states began to change in favor of certain Varna-caste communities. In the 1990s, the party system fragmented (after a long and almost undivided period in which the Indian National Congress was in power), and many political parties were created, which are based on varna-caste ties. For example, in the largest state by population, Uttar Pradesh, the Socialist Party, based on the Yadav peasant caste, who nevertheless consider themselves kshatriyas, and the Bahujan Samaj Party, which proclaims to defend the interests of the untouchables, constantly replace each other in power. It doesn’t even matter what socio-economic slogans are put forward, they simply meet the interests of their community.
Nowadays there are several thousand castes in India, and their hierarchical relations cannot be called stable. In Andhra Pradesh, for example, the Shudras are richer than the Brahmins.
Caste restrictions
More than 90% of marriages in India take place within a caste community. As a rule, Indians use their caste name to determine which caste a person belongs to. For example, a person may live in Mumbai, but he knows that historically he comes from Patiala or Jaipur, then his parents look for a groom or bride from there. This occurs through matrimonial agencies and family connections. Of course, now socio-economic status plays an increasingly important role. An eligible groom must have a Green Card or an American work permit, but the Varna-caste connection is also very important.
There are two social layers, whose representatives do not so strictly observe Varna-caste matrimonial traditions. This is the highest stratum of society. For example, the Gandhi-Nehru family, which was in power in India for a long time. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a Brahmin whose ancestors came from Allahabad, a very high caste in the Brahmin hierarchy. However, his daughter Indira Gandhi married a Zoroastrian (Parsi), which caused a big scandal. And the second layer that can afford to violate varna-caste prohibitions is the lowest strata of the population, the untouchables.
The Untouchables
The untouchables stand outside the varna division, but, as Marika Vaziani notes, they themselves have a caste structure. Historically, there are four signs of untouchability. First, lack of overall food intake. The food consumed by the untouchables is "dirty" in nature for the higher castes. Secondly, lack of access to water sources. Thirdly, the untouchables do not have access to religious institutions, temples, where the highest castes perform rituals. Fourthly, the absence of matrimonial ties between untouchables and pure castes. This kind of stigmatization of untouchables is practiced in full by about a third of the population.
The process of the emergence of the phenomenon of untouchability is still not completely clear. Orientalist researchers believed that the untouchables were representatives of a different ethnic group, race, perhaps those who joined the Aryan society after the end of the Indus civilization. Then a hypothesis arose according to which those professional groups whose activities, for religious reasons, began to have a “dirty” character, became untouchable. There is an excellent book, even for some period banned in India, “The Sacred Cow” by Dwijendra Dha, which describes the evolution of the sacralization of the cow. In early Indian texts we see descriptions of cow sacrifices, and later cows became sacred animals. People who were previously engaged in slaughtering cattle, finishing cow hides, and so on, became untouchable due to the process of sacralization of the image of a cow.
Untouchability in modern India
In modern India, untouchability is mostly practiced in villages, where, as already mentioned, it is fully observed by about a third of the population. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, this practice was strongly rooted. For example, in one village in Andhra Pradesh, untouchables had to cross the streets with palm leaves tied to their belts to cover their tracks. Representatives of the upper castes could not step on the footprints of untouchables.
In the 1930s, the British changed their laissez faire policy and began the process of positive discrimination. They established the percentage of that part of the population that belongs to the socially backward strata of society, and introduced reserved seats in the representative bodies created in India, in particular for Dalits (lit. “oppressed” - this term, borrowed from Marathi, is the politically correct name for untouchables today) . Today, this practice has been adopted at the legislative level for three groups of the population. These are the so-called “scheduled castes” (Dalits or actually untouchables), “scheduled tribes”, also “other backward classes”. However, more often than not, all three of these groups can now be defined as “untouchables,” recognizing their special status in society. They make up more than a third of the inhabitants of modern India. Reservation of seats creates a difficult situation as casteism was prohibited even in the 1950 Constitution. By the way, its main author was the Minister of Justice Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who himself was from the Maharashtrian caste of sweeper-Mahars, that is, he himself was an untouchable. In some states, the percentage of reservation already exceeds the constitutional limit of 50%. The most heated debate in Indian society is about the castes occupying the lowest social position, those engaged in manual cleaning of cesspools and those who are subject to the most severe caste discrimination.
On September 24, 1932, the right to vote in India was granted to the untouchable caste. the site decided to tell its readers how it was formed and how it exists in modern world Indian caste system.
Indian society is divided into classes called castes. This division occurred many thousands of years ago and continues to this day. Hindus believe that by following the rules established in your caste, in your next life you can be born as a representative of a slightly higher and more respected caste, and occupy a much better position in society.
After leaving the Indus Valley, Indian arias conquered the country along the Ganges and founded many states here, whose population consisted of two classes, differing in legal and financial situation. The new Aryan settlers, the victors, took over India and land, and honor, and power, and the defeated non-Indo-European natives were plunged into contempt and humiliation, forced into slavery or into a dependent state, or, driven into the forests and mountains, there they led a meager life in inaction of thought without any culture. This result of the Aryan conquest gave rise to the origin of the four main Indian castes (varnas).
Those original inhabitants of India who were subdued by the power of the sword suffered the fate of captives and became mere slaves. The Indians, who submitted voluntarily, renounced their father's gods, adopted the language, laws and customs of the victors, retained personal freedom, but lost all land property and had to live as workers on the estates of the Aryans, servants and porters, in the houses of rich people. From them came a caste sudra . "Sudra" is not a Sanskrit word. Before becoming the name of one of the Indian castes, it was probably the name of some people. The Aryans considered it beneath their dignity to enter into marriage unions with representatives of the Shudra caste. Shudra women were only concubines among the Aryans.
Over time, sharp differences in status and professions emerged between the Aryan conquerors of India themselves. But in relation to the lower caste - the dark-skinned, conquered native population - they all remained a privileged class. Only the Aryans had the right to read the sacred books; only they were consecrated by a solemn ceremony: a sacred thread was placed on the Aryan, making him “reborn” (or “twice-born”, dvija). This ritual served as a symbolic distinction between all Aryans and the Shudra caste and the despised native tribes driven into the forests. Consecration was performed by placing a cord, which was worn placed on the right shoulder and descending diagonally across the chest. Among the Brahmin caste, the cord could be placed on a boy from 8 to 15 years old, and it is made of cotton yarn; among the Kshatriya caste, who received it no earlier than the 11th year, it was made from kusha (Indian spinning plant), and among the Vaishya caste, who received it no earlier than the 12th year, it was made of wool.
Indian society was divided into castes many thousands of years ago
The "twice-born" Aryans, over time, were divided according to differences in occupation and origin into three estates or castes, which have some similarities with the three estates medieval Europe: clergy, nobility and urban middle class. The beginnings of the caste system among the Aryans existed back in the days when they lived only in the Indus basin: there, from the mass of the agricultural and pastoral population, warlike princes of the tribes, surrounded by people skilled in military affairs, as well as priests who performed sacrificial rites, already stood out.
When the Aryan tribes moved further into India, into the country of the Ganges, militant energy increased in bloody wars with the exterminated natives, and then in a fierce struggle between the Aryan tribes. Until the conquests were completed, the entire people were busy with military affairs. Only when the peaceful possession of the conquered country began did it become possible for a variety of occupations to develop, the possibility of choosing between different professions arose, and the new stage origin of castes. The fertility of the Indian soil aroused the desire for peaceful means of subsistence. From this, the innate tendency of the Aryans quickly developed, according to which it was more pleasant for them to work quietly and enjoy the fruits of their labor than to make difficult military efforts. Therefore, a significant part of the settlers (“vishes”) turned to agriculture, which produced abundant harvests, leaving the fight against enemies and the protection of the country to the tribal princes and the military nobility formed during the period of conquest. This class, engaged in arable farming and partly shepherding, soon grew so that among the Aryans, as in Western Europe, formed the vast majority of the population. Because the name vaishya "settler", which originally meant all Aryan inhabitants in new areas, came to mean only people of the third, working Indian caste, and warriors, kshatriyas and priests, brahmanas (“prayers”), who over time became the privileged classes, made the names of their professions the names of the two highest castes.
The four Indian classes listed above became completely closed castes (varnas) only when they rose above the ancient service of Indra and other gods of nature. Brahmanism, - new religious teaching about Brahma , the soul of the universe, the source of life, from which all beings originated and to which they will return. This reformed creed gave religious sanctity to the division of the Indian nation into castes, especially the priestly caste. It said that in the cycle of life forms passed through by everything existing on earth, brahman is the highest form of existence. According to the dogma of rebirth and transmigration of souls, a creature born in human form must go through all four castes in turn: to be a Shudra, a Vaishya, a Kshatriya and, finally, a Brahman; having passed through these forms of existence, it is reunited with Brahma. The only way to achieve this goal is for a person, constantly striving for deity, to exactly fulfill everything commanded by the brahmanas, to honor them, to please them with gifts and signs of respect. Offenses against Brahmanas, severely punished on earth, subject the wicked to the most terrible torments of hell and rebirth in the forms of despised animals.
According to the dogma of transmigration of souls, a person must go through all four castes
The belief in the dependence of the future life on the present was the main support of the Indian caste division and the rule of the priests. The more decisively the Brahman clergy placed the dogma of transmigration of souls at the center of all moral teaching, the more successfully it filled the imagination of the people with terrible pictures of hellish torment, the more honor and influence it acquired. Representatives of the highest caste of Brahmins are close to the gods; they know the path leading to Brahma; their prayers, sacrifices, holy feats of their asceticism have magical power over the gods, the gods have to fulfill their will; bliss and suffering in the future life depend on them. It is not surprising that with the development of religiosity among the Indians, the power of the Brahman caste increased, tirelessly praising in its holy teachings respect and generosity towards the Brahmans as the surest ways to obtain bliss, instilling in the kings that the ruler is obliged to have Brahmans as his advisers and make judges, is obliged to reward their service with rich content and pious gifts.
So that the lower Indian castes would not envy the privileged position of the Brahmans and would not encroach on it, the doctrine was developed and strenuously preached that the forms of life for all beings were predetermined by Brahma, and that the progression through the degrees of human rebirth is accomplished only by a calm, peaceful life in given to the person position, faithful performance of duties. Thus, in one of the oldest parts of the Mahabharata it is said: “When Brahma created beings, he gave them their occupations, to each caste special activity: for brahmanas - the study of the lofty Vedas, for warriors - heroism, for vaishyas - the art of labor, for sudras - submission to other flowers: therefore ignorant brahmanas, ignorant warriors, unskillful vaishyas and disobedient sudras are worthy of reproach.”
This dogma, which attributed divine origin to every caste, every profession, consoled the humiliated and despised in their insults and deprivations real life hope for a better fate in their future existence. He gave religious sanctification to the Indian caste hierarchy. The division of people into four classes, unequal in their rights, was from this point of view an eternal, unchangeable law, the violation of which is the most criminal sin. People do not have the right to overthrow the caste barriers established between them by God himself; They can achieve improvement in their fate only through patient submission.
The mutual relations between the Indian castes were clearly characterized by the teaching; that Brahma produced Brahmanas from his mouth (or the first man Purusha), Kshatriyas from his hands, Vaishyas from his thighs, Shudras from his feet dirty in mud, therefore the essence of nature for Brahmanas is “holiness and wisdom”, for Kshatriyas - “power and strength”, among the Vaishyas - “wealth and profit”, among the Shudras - “service and obedience”. The doctrine of the origin of castes from different parts of the highest being is set forth in one of the hymns of the last, most recent book of the Rig Veda. There are no concepts of caste in the older songs of the Rig Veda. Brahmins attach extreme importance to this hymn, and every true believer Brahmin recites it every morning after bathing. This hymn is the diploma with which the Brahmins legitimized their privileges, their dominion.
Some Brahmins are not allowed to eat meat.
Thus, the Indian people were led by their history, their inclinations and customs to fall under the yoke of the caste hierarchy, which turned classes and professions into tribes alien to each other, drowning out all human aspirations, all the inclinations of humanity.
Main characteristics of castes
Each Indian caste has its own characteristics and unique characteristics, rules of existence and behavior.
Brahmins are the highest caste
Brahmins in India are priests and priests in temples. Their position in society has always been considered the highest, even higher than the position of ruler. Currently, representatives of the Brahmin caste are also involved in the spiritual development of the people: they teach various practices, look after temples, and work as teachers.
Brahmins have a lot of prohibitions:
Men are not allowed to work in the fields or do any manual labor, but women can do various household chores.
A representative of the priestly caste can only marry someone like himself, but as an exception, a wedding with a Brahman from another community is allowed.
A Brahmana cannot eat what a person of another caste has prepared; a Brahmana would rather starve than eat forbidden food. But he can feed a representative of absolutely any caste.
Some brahmanas are not allowed to eat meat.
Kshatriyas - warrior caste
Representatives of the Kshatriyas always performed the duties of soldiers, guards and policemen.
Currently, nothing has changed - kshatriyas are engaged in military affairs or go to administrative work. They can marry not only in their own caste: a man can marry a girl from a lower caste, but a woman is prohibited from marrying a man from a lower caste. Kshatriyas can eat animal products, but they also avoid forbidden foods.
Vaishyas, like no one else, monitor the correct preparation of food
Vaishya
Vaishyas have always been the working class: they farmed, raised livestock, and traded.
Now representatives of the Vaishyas are engaged in economic and financial affairs, various trades, and the banking sector. Probably, this caste is the most scrupulous in matters related to food intake: vaishyas, like no one else, monitor the correct preparation of food and will never eat contaminated dishes.
Shudras - the lowest caste
The Shudra caste has always existed in the role of peasants or even slaves: they did the dirtiest and hardest work. Even in our time, this social stratum is the poorest and often lives below the poverty line. Shudras can marry even divorced women.
The Untouchables
The untouchable caste stands out separately: such people are excluded from all social relations. They do the dirtiest work: cleaning streets and toilets, burning dead animals, tanning leather.
Amazingly, representatives of this caste were not even allowed to step on the shadows of representatives of higher classes. And only very recently they were allowed to enter churches and approach people of other classes.
Unique Features of Castes
Having a brahmana in your neighborhood, you can give him a lot of gifts, but you shouldn’t expect anything in return. Brahmins never give gifts: they accept, but do not give.
In terms of land ownership, Shudras can be even more influential than Vaishyas.
The untouchables were not allowed to step on the shadows of people from the upper classes
Shudras of the lower stratum practically do not use money: they are paid for their work in food and household supplies.You can move to a lower caste, but it is impossible to get a caste of a higher rank.
Castes and modernity
Today, Indian castes have become even more structured, with many different subgroups called jatis.
During the last census of representatives of various castes, there were more than 3 thousand jatis. True, this census took place more than 80 years ago.
Many foreigners consider the caste system to be a relic of the past and believe that the caste system no longer works in modern India. In fact, everything is completely different. Even the Indian government could not come to a consensus regarding this stratification of society. Politicians actively work on dividing society into layers during elections, adding protection of the rights of a particular caste to their election promises.
In modern India, more than 20 percent of the population belongs to the untouchable caste: they have to live in their own separate ghettos or outside the boundaries of the populated area. Such people are not allowed to enter stores, government and medical institutions, or even use public transport.
In modern India, more than 20% of the population belongs to the untouchable caste
The untouchable caste has a completely unique subgroup: society’s attitude towards it is quite contradictory. These include homosexuals, transvestites and eunuchs who make their living through prostitution and asking tourists for coins. But what a paradox: the presence of such a person at the holiday is considered a very good sign.
Another amazing podcast of the untouchables is Pariah. These are people completely expelled from society - marginalized. Previously, one could become a pariah even by touching such a person, but now the situation has changed a little: one becomes a pariah either by being born from an intercaste marriage, or from pariah parents.
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